To meet the specific needs of the Chinese market more effectively in future, the mould manufacturer Plastisud has joined forces with Engel Austria, the producer of injection moulding machines, to form a joint venture. Under the name of Green Cap, they are offering turnkey solutions for the production of sealing caps for water and soft drinks containers in China.
Around the globe, demand for caps and closures is expanding by around five percent per year – and China is the world's largest market in terms of volume. The world's most populous country is imposing increasingly stringent requirements on packaging products and their manufacture: the weight of packaging needs to be reduced, quality needs to be raised and uncompromising performance must be delivered with maximum energy efficiency. “The Chinese market is very demanding. Chinese customers request nothing but the best”, emphasises Walter J. Jungwirth, Director New Business Development at Engel Austria in the Austrian town of Schwertberg.
“Green Cap is the best way for us to address this trend. We are offering maximum output and quality while optimising the cost structure for our customers”, Jean-Luc Giraud, CEO of Plastisud at Castelnaudary in France, takes up the theme: “By bringing two family owned market leaders together, we want to amalgamate a unique wealth of experience in plastic closure moulds and highly efficient injection moulding machines to provide the Chinese market with a simple but very efficient plastic cap solution”. The two partners have analysed the Chinese market and the demands of Chinese manufacturers in great detail. From day one, the aim was not only to deliver innovative technologies, but also to offer an economically viable solution to plastics processing companies in China.
Plastisud and Engel will unveil their new concept at the Chinaplas 2012 trade fair, which runs from 18th to 21st April in Shanghai. At the Green Cap stand, an all-electric Engel e-cap 3440/420 injection moulding machine with a 96-cavity mould made by Plastisud will make nearly 130,000 sealing caps per hour, reaching a cycle time faster than 2.8 seconds. With cycle times of under 3 seconds and injection speeds of up to 460 mm per second, Engel's all-electric e-cap injection moulding machine is designed to handle the highest output rates with maximum efficiency.
Green Cap total solutions promise energy consumption of just 0.75 kWh per kilogram of granules, thereby delivering far better energy efficiency than similar systems on the market can offer. The system solutions save cooling water as well as electricity, thus making a lasting contribution to environmental protection. Other features of the production systems include robust and hard-wearing components, high process reliability and maximum availability. Green Cap solutions come with 32 to 96 cavities moulds as standard along with machine clamping force of 200 to 420 tons; as a further option, 500 ton machines are available.
Greencap installed its base in Shanghai in the premises of Engel to bring a complete and fast service to the Chinese customers. Plastisud and Engel are well established as reputable European suppliers to the Chinese market for injection moulding. One and a half year ago, Plastisud opened a new sales office in Shanghai; Engel has a production plant in Shanghai as well as three sales and service offices. “We are well connected to our customer base in China, and doubling our production area at Engel Machinery Shanghai demonstrates our commitment to the region”, says Gero Willmeroth, President (Sales and Service) at Engel Machinery Shanghai. “With the turnkey solution of Green Cap we are bringing high performance and the latest technology standards to China at a reasonable price.“
